Product Description

Reef Encounter is about life on a coral reef! Using polyp tiles, players grow different types of corals, which they can protect from being attacked by other corals through judicious placing of their four wooden shrimp. To be successful players must consume polyps from neighboring corals in order to acquire the "consumed" polyp tiles that are the key to the game. The consumed polyp tiles have a myriad of uses (and have a similar effect to the action points in games like Tikal and Java). Most importantly they can be used to flip over or lock the coral tiles, which determine the respective values of the different types of coral at the end of the game.

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Product Reviews

When you see the cute painted shrimp with their little painted eyes,
don't think you have a simple, "beer and pretzels" game. This game is
complex and there is a great deal of skill involved in the play. It
will take a few plays before the richness of this masterpiece becomes
evident. Every move and decision is crucial.

Highly replayable. May scare off people who don't want to put a lot of
time and concentration into their games (Both in the learning and the
play).

I've played this game twice so far. After the first play, I
immediately bought it. If you like heavier games, this one delivers
the goods.

The theme is of course out of the ordinary - growing corals on
some underwater rocks, protecting them with shrimps, so you
can finally eat both the coral and shrimps with your parrotfish.
But on the other hand, there is something about the theme - life
in a coral reef - that is compelling. And the new Z-Man edition has
beautiful dark tones that help evoke an underwater atmosphere.

But of course, interesting theme and nice colors do not a great
game make. The mechanics and gameplay are crucial. For me
there are just enough things to consider in Reef Encounter to
make it interesting, but not too much to overwhelm me. Others
have already described the game play in detail. I'll just say that I
was pleasantly surprised with this game, and recommend it if you
want a deeper, heavier game of about the same weight as
games like Puerto Rico, Caylus, and Tigris and Euphrates. It is
also just as good as those three games.

Reef Encounter usually inspires two reactions in new
players. They are often dazzled by the
spectacular beauty of the game (it’s the prettiest
game I own) but a little dazed by the rules
explanation. Indeed, the game is visually
stunning; and while the game play only faintly
alludes to the theme, the idea of a reef barrier
is realized by the artwork of Juliet Breese. The
beautiful background is but a sham, however, as
there is a raging conflict of reefs in the game play.

The game plays extremely well - it’s one of the
best games of 2004 without a doubt. Of course,
this being a Breese game made that almost a
certainty- I ordered a copy of the game without
even finding out any information. There’s a steep
learning curve to the game - after about ten
plays, I find myself easily beating newcomers -
but it’s not insurmountable. For some reason, the
game reminds me of Tigris and Euphrates - the
direct confrontation and the tile laying have some
sinister similarities. And yet Reef Encounter is
a bit gentler, and because of the theme a bit
easier to find opponents. It’s definitely a game
of skill and tactical placement, and I haven’t
found a sure strategy to win. It makes for a very
good three or four-player game, and an excellent
two player bout. Richard Breese has produced a
masterpiece, hindered only by a slightly
problematic rulebook and limited production.

One playing board is placed in the middle of the
table for each player in the game (up to four).
Each board has thirty-three squares in a grid of
some sort. Five of these squares are starting
spots for five different colored corals, and a
“polyp” (tile) of each type (gray, orange, pink,
white, and yellow) is placed on those spots. Each
player takes a screen of their color, a small
container (the parrotfish), four shrimp tokens in
their color, and a bunch of polyp tiles randomly
drawn from the cloth bag (number determined by
player order number). An “open sea” board is
placed on the table, with ten coral tiles placed
on it. Each coral tile shows a combination of two
of the reef types - one double, and the other
single. The coral tiles also have either a red,
blue, green, or purple flower printed on them. A
pile of larva cubes (matching the coral types) is
placed near the board, as well as a pile of alga
cylinders. Five spaces on the open-sea board, one
for each color of reef have a cube of that color
placed in them, as well as one to three random
polyp tiles (detailed in the rules). Each player
then does two things: takes two cubes of their
choice - putting them behind their screen, and
placing one of their polyp tiles secretly into
their parrotfish. The player who is chosen to go
first begins, with each player following in
clockwise order.

On a turn, a player has three phases. In the
first, they have the option of “eating” one of
their corals (explained later.) They then enter
an action phase, where they can perform the
following actions in any order:

- They may play a larva cube from behind their
screen and place matching polyp tiles of that
color from behind or in front of their screen onto
the board (up to four). Tiles may be placed
pretty much anywhere the player wants, but cannot
be placed so that two groups of the same type of
reef would join. If the player places a tile next
to an “extra growth” space, they may place a bonus
tile of that type for free there. This action may
only be done twice on a turn.

- When doing the above action, the player may
“attack” one coral type when placing polyp tiles.
They must first check the open-sea board, looking
at the coral tile that matches the combination of
attacker/victim. The attack can only occur if the
attacking color is the double coral on the coral
tile. Attacks can also only be made from reefs
that are two or more tiles large. The tile(s) are
eaten, and placed in front of the screen of the
attacking player.

- They may place one of their shrimp on any coral
group on the board that doesn’t already have
another shrimp on it. Shrimps protect the tile
they are on from attack, as well as the four tiles
orthogonically.

- They may move one of their shrimps to another
coral group without a shrimp, or behind their screen.

- They may exchange one of their “eaten” polyp
tiles for a larva cube of the same color, placing
the cube behind their screen.

- They may exchange one of their larva cubes for a
polyp tile of the same color.

- They may exchange one of their “eaten” polyp
tiles for an alga cylinder. The player discards
the tile into the bag and places one cylinder of
any of the four colors onto the open-sea board.
This causes all larva tiles with a flower of that
color to flip over, reversing the power struggle
between those two colors. (Instead of yellow being
able to eat orange, now orange can eat yellow!)

After a player has taken all the actions they want
to (or can), they pick one of the larva cubes on
the open-sea board, taking all the polyp tiles
with it, placing all of them behind their screen.
The larva cube is replenished on the board, and
all of the spaces that have less than three polyp
tiles have one randomly added. Play then passes
to the next player.

At the beginning of each turn, a player has the
opportunity to consume one of the corals upon
which they have a shrimp, as long as it consists
of at least five tiles. Four of the tiles are
returned to the bag, with the remainder being
placed inside that player’s parrotfish. If this
is the first coral a player has eaten, they place
their shrimp onto the open-sea board. From now
on, when that player takes an alga cylinder, they
may place it directly onto one of the coral tiles,
locking it into place (this can only be done once
per turn.) Future shrimps are placed into the
parrotfish, so as the player devours corals (only
one per turn), they slowly lose their shrimp. The
game ends when one player has eaten all four of
their shrimp or when all the coral tiles are
locked by alga cylinders. All players, other than
the one who precipitated the end of the game, get
one extra turn, in which they can only consume a
tile group (although they must pay five tiles to
the bag instead of four).

All players empty out their parrotfish and count
up the value of the tiles they’ve eaten. The
coral tiles on the open-sea board are consulted.
Each coral type is worth one point, plus one point
for every coral tile that they have a double tile
presence on. Therefore, polyp tiles are worth one
to five points. The player with the highest score
is the winner (tiebreaker in the rules.)

Some comments on the game...

1.) Components: Reef Encounter was done with a
professional touch, and this difference can be
really told by the box - which is of tremendous
quality when compared to previous R&D games, like
Keythedral. The rest of the components are
sterling, also. The cubes and alga cylinders are
easy to handle, but the neatest wooden components
are the little wooden shrimps with painted on eyes
- easily the most unique component in the game.
Speaking of unique, EVERY SINGLE double-sided
polyp tile is drawn slightly differently. This
may not be a big deal to some, but it really
enhances the over all appearance of the game.
When the tiles are placed on the gorgeous boards,
that really do look like a photograph of the
crystal clear water of a reef, the effect is
tremendous. The game is absolutely gorgeous, and
the time spent into putting it together shows.
The shields have nice artwork, as well as the
parrotfish (which stand up like miniature
Castillos from El Grande), and everything is just
a joy to play around with - tons of little
goodies. The only problem I had was that the gray
and white polyp tiles were occasionally confused
by players, but this was easily noticed and fixed.

2.) Rules: The twelve-page rulebook is just as
beautiful as the game, with many beautiful
illustrations and examples. Unfortunately, it
doesn’t do as good of a job as explaining the
rules as it should. Reef Encounter has several
more rules than your typical “Euro” game, and the
layout and order in the book was fairly confusing.
Some reference cards are included, but they
really don’t do a good enough job and almost can
be as mystifying as the rules. When teaching the
game to newcomers, I am very quick to explain
strategies, and such; but the game is really only
taught by doing, rather than explaining. After
teaching several groups of players how to play the
game, I finally have a system down; but it’s a bit
“heavier” than your average game.

3.) Scoring: I always mention scoring first, as
it is a crucial factor in the game. Players
should take care to watch which corals they eat,
as well as how valuable those polyp tiles become
over the course of the game. One must take care
not to put all of their eggs in one basket, so to
speak - I have yet to see a player win who
concentrated solely on one tile group. I thought
that the mechanic of putting one tile in the
parrotfish at the beginning of the game was quite
clever - as it prevented players from having
perfect knowledge, but allowed them to still have
a great deal of information.

4.) Players: The game plays well with three and
four, and the attacks players make on each other
are fun, keeping interaction high. But I think
that I enjoy my two-player match-ups the most.
The game becomes very strategic and interesting,
and downtime is very minimal. In a four-player
game, especially if you have a slow-moving
thinker, the possibility for some analysis
paralysis presents itself. But in a two-player
game, your turn comes up so often that you don’t
mind; and therefore, I think this has become one
of my favorite two-player games.

5.) Strategy: There are a lot of decisions to
make during the game. Just how fast should one
consume their own polyp tiles? I’ve seen one
player rush to eat them as fast as they could,
hoping to end the game quickly; but they went too
fast, not gaining enough points. Others grow huge
coral reefs that become too big of targets for
others to attack. One must find a balance, and
know just when to consume their own coral reefs.
Sometimes all a player does on their turn is just
take a cube and tiles and slowly bide their turn
for a few rounds, building up for a sudden attack.
The tactics in this game are many and varied, and
for some reason remind me of the same mindset I
get in Tigris and Euphrates.

6.) Availability: Sadly, Reef Encounter is hard
to find. I was fortunate to have someone pick me
up a copy at Essen for a reasonable price, but now
the game is few and far between. Hopefully a
large company will pick it up for wider
distribution - it’s certainly a worthy candidate -
so that everyone can get it.

7.) Fun Factor: The game, with the neat theme and
terrific strategy, is sort of a vicious game, with
players attacking other player’s corals, or using
them to their advantage. Players will even attack
their own corals, just to get the polyp tiles to
exchange for alga cylinders. Some people may be
uncomfortable with this level of aggression, but I
found that the game had a nice balance so that the
aggression-happy people were satisfied, as well as
those who would rather just play a non-aggressive
game. The shrimp allowed people to protect their
corals fairly well, and with some good
positioning, you could fend off most attackers.
Still, sometimes I saw (or did myself) a tactic
that just impressed me with its brilliance. The
game allows a player so many neat tricks that it’s
just a joy to play.

If you find this game for a decent price, buy it
quickly, without thinking. It’s Mr. Breese’s best
game to date, and that’s an impressive statement.
Everyone I’ve played it with has enjoyed it; and
although some of the players were a little dazed
their first time through (I was), further playings
showed the true strategies and tactics of the
game. Sadly, the game is currently out of the
price range of most people, and unless a reprint
occurs, will stay that way. That’s a shame, as
this game is a truly tremendous game, with a
unique feel that I’ve gotten from no other.

I'm a big fan of Richard Breese's games. Aladdin's Dragons
and Keythedral are two of my favorites, so I was eagerly
anticipating Reef Encounter. I was not disappointed. It is
a deeper game than either of the other two, and there is
viturally no luck involved. There is plenty of player
interaction. It's difficult to plan too far ahead, as the
board is constantly changing, but you need to have an
overall strategy, and you must try to influence the game
to your benefit. Like all good Eurogames, there is plenty
to do and not enough time to do it, so you have to choose
the most advantageous course of action. The rules appear
complex at first, but once you get into the rhythm of the
game, the rewards are there. Highly recommended.

I truly enjoy advanced strategy games and rarely write a
negative review of one, unfortunately Reef Encounter is that
exception. My local gaming group - a lawyer and three IT
professionals - put this game through its paces and after four
games of trying to like it we all came to a unanimous conclusion.
It's painfully complicated and we don't.

The concept is indeed different and the pieces are colorful. Coral
reefs. OK, that hasn't been done before. But to say this is a
game about coral reefs is to say El Grande is a game about
Spain. It adds flavor to the game but is really just window
dressing for the game mechanic underneath. Marine biologists
beware....

The ultimate downside to this game is that at its heart it is a very
complicated math equation, and once you finally get your head
around the rules and the strategy you come to realize this math
equation just isn't very fun. The path to victory is ultimately the
same for everyone - devour the largest corals, lock in the biggest
multipliers and score the most points. Unlike Puerto Rico or
Merchants of Venice there just aren't many alternate paths to
victory - the formula is the same for everyone. The guy with the
best head for equations at the table should win and the game is
more or less a test of who can be the most efficient at performing
the same task. Unfortunately I found very little redeeming value
in this game.

Other Resources for Reef Encounter:

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